A sunny September has put the smile back on the faces of vignerons who have been harvesting "magnificent" grapes and plenty of them.

No one is claiming an exceptional vintage just yet, especially as the harvest is only just starting for Merlot, the earliest red variety to be picked. Such claims will have wait until latter part of October, when the Cabernet comes in.

But the Bordeaux wine world is speaking of a "miracle", given the appalling start to the growing season.

"In August, our morale was at rock bottom," explained Olivier Dauga, a consultant to several Bordeaux properties.

"The month of July was cold enough to have made the record books, and this was followed by a rainy August. But, happily, when September arrived it gave us both extraordinary light intensity as well as warmth, and this has allowed the grapes not only to catch up but to reach optimum ripeness. These last four weeks have changed everything."

Stephen Carrier, director of the 80-hectare (200-acre) Graves grand cru class?Ch鈚eau Fieuzal breathed a sigh of relief: "This is an undreamt-of vintage. We didn't think we could leave harvesting so late, but with this fantastic September the Merlot grapes have been saved; they are in perfect condition. We hardly had to sort at all, everything we picked has gone in, that's a good sign," he said.

For now, the harvest is proceeding with little stress, explained Carrier. "It's only around two or three times a decade that we have the time to harvest when we want, to be able to choose which parcels to harvest when and to be able to stop when we want."

Another advantage of 2014 in Bordeaux is the quantity being harvested, following the catastrophic 2013 vintage when climatic disasters (hail, coulure and poor fruit set) had a big impact on the amount harvested.

"We hadn't run out of stock, but if we didn't have a good 2014, we would definitely have had problems supplying the market," remarked n間ociant Allan Sichel, vice president of the CIVB.

"Having a decent volume this vintage is perfect. This allows us to build up reserves for the future in order to even out supply and demand and not create pressure on the markets."

So, with quantity in the bag, it remains to be seen about the eventual quality of 2014.

"We have to wait a while to see exactly what it will give, but it should be a classic vintage with decent color and structure, not for drinking before five years," said Dauga. "2014 will certainly be among the memorable vintages of Bordeaux."